The Concept - "Flying Sea Monters"
I wanted to build a partner deck with some lesser-seen commanders. I think
Eligeth, Crossroads Augur
+
Siani, Eye of the Storm
fits the bill. At first glance, the deck seems like a jank combo to just draw cards. However, it does provide a fair bit of value. All the support cards that scry draw you cards instead. You can stack up flyers, send them at opponents, then draw for each attacker. Cards like
Oneirophage
,
Ominous Seas
, and
Psychosis Crawler
can get very strong very fast. The deck also runs a fair amount of counterspells to draw into (including some that scry aka draw). Overall, it's a really fun deck with a surprising amount of power for the relatively cheap price point.
Early Game - "Assemble the Birds"
This deck will struggle if you don't get out mana early. You'll need to hit all your land drops. Rocks will be your friend, and pulling a
Sapphire Medallion
or
Kefnet's Monument
will allow you to get the commanders out quickly, as rest as the rest of your deck.
Warden of Evos Isle
fills the same role.
Play out any cheap flyers or value pieces. You want to save any scry cards until you have
Eligeth, Crossroads Augur
on the battlefield, unless you are really needing for lands or value pieces. When playing the commanders,
Eligeth, Crossroads Augur
can be better to have on the board first. In many cases, though,
Siani, Eye of the Storm
's cheaper cost will make it easier to bring out first. Additionally, you can play Siani one turn, then the next turn you play Eligeth and Siani is no longer summoning-sickened, so the fun can begin.
Mid Game - "This is Where the Fun Begins"
Draw cards and spend your mana on the best cards you can draw. That is the best advice I can give.
Having a card to remove your max hand size is critical at this point, and there are a few options.
Reliquary Tower
and
Thought Vessel
are classics,
Spellbook
is an easy cost, and
Folio of Fancies
is great to let your opponents get in on the fun.
Mu Yanling, Celestial Wind
is a neat planeswalker (haha...planeswalker. get it? planes? like flying?...I'll let myself out) . If your opponent happens to have a flyer bigger than
Siani, Eye of the Storm
, then you can use Mu Yanling's +1 Loyalty to drop that creature's power and allow you to swing Siani safely. Additionally, Mu can make your flyers big, which is a plus.
Psychosis Crawler
and
Ominous Seas
are great outlets for your draw power, and similar cards exist in the deck. There are many cheap- to mid- cost flyers along with flyer buffs to give you an intimidating board presence that sails over most of your opponents' blockers.
Archetype of Imagination
and
Wonder
allow your big bois and sea creatures to join in the fun of wooshing past any defences your opponents thought would save them.
As I've mentioned on other decks,
Sea Gate Restoration
is a great card in draws-matter decks. Going from 20 cards in hand to 40 gives you a high likelihood to have any card you may want, as well as giving you triggers and massive 40/40 creatures.
By this point in the game, you should be able to draw a solid 5-20 cards per turn depending on how things are going, and you should have an answer to a lot of situations (or at least a counterspell).
Late Game - "Another Happy Landing"
There are a variety of ways to win. The simplest one is to kill your opponents with many and / or big flyers. However there are some ways to make the ending more exciting.
Omniscience
is a very powerful late game card. If you don't get unlucky you can very easily play out every card in your deck and obliterate any hope your opponents had of winning. There are only two cards that will save you from decking yourself out,
Laboratory Maniac
and
Ormos, Archive Keeper
. Though, once you are at that point in the game, it is extremely likely they are in your hand anyways.
I am proud to say I have won a game with this deck starting with 15 cards in hand and 65 in deck using
Omniscience
. I managed to play out enough scry cards for free to keep the draws coming. Once I had my deck down to 2 cards, I dropped
Laboratory Maniac
and swung
Siani, Eye of the Storm
with 2 other flyers to draw 3 and win the game. Is it anywhere near an ideal Lab Man combo? No. Is it a fun alternate win condition to the deck? Absolutely.
Pinging your opponents out with Pyschosis Crawler by being psychotic enough to play this deck will drive them crazy.
Final Thoughts - "Live to Fly Another Day"
This deck started with a goofy idea and transformed into one of my favorite decks that I have built. It probably isn't ideal, but flyers and support pieces aren't that expensive so the deck is fairly cheap for how much it is (kinda) optimized. It takes a little bit of luck to get going well, but is fairly reliable. And once you start drawing with every scry, you'll feel the addictive power of having the best non-cEDH draw power at the table. All in all, draw power combined with creatures that can get past blockers makes this deck an absolute force to be reckoned with.
